Krapp's Last Tape

Samuel Beckett, an Irish playwright, was one of the leading writers of the Theatre of the Absurd, a movement in drama that peaked in the 1950s. The Theatre of the Absurd explored existentialist themes, largely in response to the unprecedented devastation of World War II and the rapid modernization that followed. Its works often mix tragic elements with comedic clichés and feature characters in desperate situations. Krapp’s Last Tape does both.

Although it is ultimately a pessimistic play, the play begins with a bit of silly physical comedy. Krapp slips on a banana peelin an enactment of an old Vaudeville trope. This serves as an introduction to the play in several ways. First, the slapstick undermines the self-seriousness and pretension of the Krapp we will hear on the tape. As an old cliché, the inclusion of the peel also critiques the search for originality in art and drama and, more specifically, of Krapp’s search for these things via his own intellectual efforts. With its absurdity, Krapp’s slipping on the peel points to a meaninglessness that haunts his life and highlights the desperation he feels at the end of it. Finally, his near fall represents the pitfalls of the physical body, a strong theme throughout Krapp's Last Tape.